Toll Facility Safety Study Report to Congress - About

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Toll Facility Safety Study Report to Congress In 1990, Zilocchi described a success story on the Garden State Parkway dealing with the addition of branch toll lanes to improve safety and operations at toll plazas. This practice is used by several toll agencies when expanding toll plazas to create more toll lanes. Traditionally, toll plazas were expanded by adding lanes horizontally, which caused issues with increased right-ofway, construction time needed, disruption of traffic, opposition from the community, and cost. Branch lanes are used to add toll lanes either ahead of or after the existing lanes as a branch of the mainline plaza. Zilocchi stated that safety was a prime concern and thus the safety aspects were carefully monitored. One issue deals with motorists traveling too fast on the approach to the branch lanes, and thus signing was used to successfully cut down on approach speeds. Of additional concern was toll worker safety, and thus the New Jersey State Police were asked to carefully monitor the branch toll lanes due to an increased danger of robbery or other inappropriate action with tollbooth personnel in the branch lanes. Other concerns included protecting collectors from being injured by vehicles, and thus impact attenuators and sidewalks with steel guiderails were added to make the branch lanes as safe as the traditional lanes. Zilocchi reported that as of publication of the article, there were not any serious accidents in the branch lanes and that there did not seem to be any reason to think that the lanes were inherently unsafe as designed. Driver and Occupant Safety in the Area of Toll Facilities In 2003, Mohamed Abdel-Aty (2003) published a paper analyzing driver injury severity levels and what factors had the most influence. In the paper, models were developed at roadway sections, intersections, and toll plazas in Central Florida. The toll plazas analyzed were on the Central Florida expressway system on state roads 408, 417, and 528 for a total of 79 miles. Ten mainline toll plazas and 42 ramp tolls are located in the system. The ETC was added starting in 1994 and the installations were completed by 1998. Police reports were obtained in 1999 and 2000 to analyze the results. Variables collected fell into the categories of crash, driver, vehicle, plaza, and roadway. Crashrelated factors included age, gender, driver license type, alcohol involvement, driver violation, presence in an ETC lane, and ETC user. Vehicle factors included vehicle type, point of impact, number of impacts, and speed ratio (as compared with the posted limit). Plaza factors included mainline versus ramp, and roadway factors included weather condition, lighting condition, and time and day information. Of 1,932 total crashes on the system in 1999 and 2000, 447 crashes (23.1 percent) occurred near a toll plaza with 803 drivers involved. The type of crashes were: rear-end (40.1 percent), sideswipe (26.5 percent), fixed object (21.3 percent), backed-into (6.4 percent), and other (5.7 percent). As for data that indicated crash location relative to the toll plaza (725 vehicles), 43.6 percent of the accidents were when the vehicle was approaching, 43.7 percent were when the vehicle was at the plaza, and 12.7 percent were when the vehicle was leaving the plaza. When looking at injury severity, 61.0 percent had no injury, 21.0 percent had possible injury, 15.3 percent had evident injury, and 2.8 percent had a severe or fatal injury. The results showed that older drivers, male drivers, and occupants not wearing a seat belt had a higher probability of severe injury. Additionally, drivers of passenger cars, vehicles struck on the driver’s side, and vehicles that were speeding experienced higher severity injury. Additionally, it was found that vehicles with an ETC transponder had a higher injury rate to those without the transponders. This may occur when a vehicle without a transponder stops in the lane with fast-moving ETC transponder users. Appendix B – Literature Review Page B-4
Toll Facility Safety Study Report to Congress Another study conducted in Florida by Abdelwahab and Abdel-Aty (2002) looked at the same data as the Abdel-Aty paper described previously and compared the use of logit models and artificial neural networks to analyze the safety at toll plazas. The authors state that an ETC transponder user is 11 percent more likely to be involved in a crash than nonusers. The results showed that a neural network approach was a better model to predict crash severities, but more important to this topic are the recommendations made after running the models. The first suggestion is that improvement is needed in lane markings at the approach to toll plazas. The second suggestion states that traffic signs should be used to deter motorists from stopping in ETC lanes. The authors also suggest that warning signs be placed downstream of plazas located at off-ramps to show that a toll plaza is located on the ramp. Additionally, the authors recommend that ETC lanes be made wide enough to accommodate heavy trucks that use the ETC system. Finally, it is suggested that the approach zone and toll plaza structure should be illuminated to enhance visibility. Traffic Volume at Toll Plazas and the Influence on Safety There is a scarcity of published research dealing with the effect of traffic volume on safety at toll plazas; however, a paper by Chang et al. (2000) investigated how volume-to-capacity (v/c) ratios affected safety on a freeway section with two mainline toll booths. The study section included a four-lane freeway with four interchanges, two toll gates, and two tunnels. It was found that the accident rate of the toll facility section was higher than the other sections. The overall relationship of crashes represented a U-shaped curve with v/c ratios from 0.1 to 0.8 and an accident rate from 90 to 2,714 crashes per million kilometers traveled. When analyzing the curve, the fewest crashes occurred at the toll facility section when the v/c ratio was 0.57. The authors do state, however, that the model did not fully explain the relationship and that additional explanatory variables should be considered. Toll Collector Health and Safety A comprehensive review of toll collector health and safety was performed by Szeinuk et al. (2006) for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. As identified in other reports, the authors state that ETC systems may contribute to the health and safety risks of toll collectors. Overall, the report identified several concerns to toll collectors. Outside the tollbooth, these concerns include: Crossing the toll plaza due to poor design, lack of signs, lack of tunnels, and danger of trips and falls. Poor maintenance of plaza facilities. Motorist issues including disregard for signs, speeding, failure to stop, and dangers of tractor-trailers. Lack of enforcement resulting in a vulnerability to security. Inside the tollbooth, risks to toll collectors include: Lack of protection Uncomfortable uniforms Ergonomic concerns (i.e., uneven floors, uncomfortable seats, fixed window height, door jamming, poor lighting, and repetitive motion) Appendix B – Literature Review Page B-5
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